“Daddy, are you done now?” Those were the words spoken by two-year-old Wyatt Perano after his daddy, Curt, set his snow hook in Nome this morning. Led by a young female named Taizer, thirteen very happy enthusiastic Alaskan Huskies made the arch on Front Street at 07:10 Friday morning. Team Perano has completed four consecutive Iditarod runs to Nome since 2012. First order of business for Curt once he’d made the arch was to move through the team with a special touch or scratch and words of praise for each of the canine athletes. Taizer up front eturned Curt’s affection with a big swoosh of her tongue across his face. Those sled dogs, they can’t hold their licker. Curt returned to the sled for a bag of frozen snacks and moved back down the line offering each athlete a treat. While they munched, Curt did his bag with the official checker and then signed off the trail. All this happened in front of a back drop of New Zealand flags.
Finishing in 32nd place with a time of 10 days,, 21 hours and 11 minutes, Perano was quick to praise the efforts of all his dogs, especially the young leader, Taizer. He recognizes her special talents up front and plans to rely on her abilities in many more races. The Peranos have worked to develop their kennel over the past five years and are now beginning to see the fruits of their breeding program.
Curt has been running dogs since Y2K then moved to Minnesota to work with Iditarod Veteran Jamie Nelson. After residing in British Columbia for a short while, the Peranos continued further north and a little west and now reside in Willow, Alaska. Curt enjoys running dogs and he also enjoys the out-of-doors. Combine the two and you have a long distance musher.
The family has turned their life with dogs into a full-time vocation. Fleur, Curt’s wife, says they’ll be heading back to New Zealand on April 3rd to run their New Zealand Alps based tour business, Under Dog New Zealand. they’ll return to Alaska in the fall and begin training for long distance events.
Rounding out the top thirty mushers, Jodi Bailey arrived in Nome some 5 hours ahead of Perano. Jodi’s run up Front Street slipped under my radar. I had it figured that she’d be in about 03:00 so my iPhone was set to bark at 02:30. I quickly checked the tracker to see how close she was. Much to my dismay, she had signed off the trail at 02:07 so I missed welcoming Jodi, Orchid, pepsi, M.K. and the rest of the team. I’ll catch up with them later today down in the dog lot or in the Mini.
Bailey is a theater major who won a grant to study story-telling. Alaska was her destination and she fell in love with the beauty and the people. Through her mushing experiences, she’s got plenty of stories to tell and does so in a very captivating manor. Jodi and her husband, Dan Kaduce have built their team and reside at Dew Claw Kennel near Fairbanks. They appreciate the opportunity to run the FBX2NOME route this year. Even with living in the are, it’s not a route they often train on. Like Bailey, Kaduce is a veteran of both the Yukon Quest and Iditarod.
Looking at the Insider Vidoe clip of Bailey under the arch, she was in excellent spirits. Her dogs came into the chute on a spirited trot. Bailey said she liked the new route and as was plain to see, her dogs were very happy.
Jodi made history in 2011 when she became the first rookie to complete the Yukon Quest and Iditarod in the same year. In the 2015 Race Guide Jodi says, “They never fail to inspire me with their attitude and what they are capable of doing When you are out there on the trail with your team, you don’t have e-mail or work or laundry or anything like that. Everything that is important is right there in front of you. When you travel by dog team you are really exposed to the world around you, experience it in all its beauty and extremes. People talk about finding your happy place. Well for me it is on the back of a sled with my team.”
